Choosing a Voice: Making Letterpress Posters

In this weekend workshop, students will learn the basics of hand-setting wood type and letterpress printing to create a poster based on a very short text of their choice. The workshop will focus on exploring the relationship between voice and text: how do visual decisions such as typeface, scale, layout, negative space, and color affect the reading of a text? How does the appearance of words influence what they say? What do words look like when they’re yelling, whispering, pontificating, sighing, asserting, or stretching? We will look at examples of text-based artwork (and then letterpress print our own!) in consideration of voice to arrive at a better understanding of voice and text in our own work and in the inundation of text we experience in the world every day.

All are welcome; no previous printing experience is necessary. Students should bring with to class several short quotes (lines of poetry, mottos, mantras, slogans, or words to live by) of ten words or less that they’d like to turn into a poster. Each student will have the opportunity to typeset one short text. The workshop will conclude with a print exchange within the class, which means that everyone will go home with a stack of their own posters and one of each of their classmates’. The workshop will be held at the School of Art’s Letterpress Lab and Book Arts facility at 1035 Mabel Street. There will be a one-hour lunch break each day; students should bring a lunch. Registration is limited to eight students only. This course is made possible through a partnership between the Poetry Center and the UA School of Art.